Zagallo puts his shirt on Pele memento being a fake

MARIO ZAGALLO, the former coach of Brazil, has cast doubts on the authenticity of a Pele shirt that Christie's plans to auction next month.

The jersey, said to have been worn by Pele in Brazil's 1970 World Cup final victory over Italy in Mexico, is said to be worth at least £30,000.

Zagallo, who coached the team that year, claims he has the shirt Pele wore during the first half of the final and that the team's fitness trainer, Admildo Chirol, had the jersey the forward wore during the second half.

"At half-time, Pele gave me his shirt,"said Zagallo. "Afterwards, Chirol got the other. This is some kind of trickery."

Chirol's son confirmed he inherited the jersey from his father although Pele reportedly does not remember what he did with his shirt after the game ended.

However, according to Christie's, the jersey belonged to Italian international Roberto Rosato, who said he swapped shirts with Pele after Brazil's 4-1 victory at the Azteca stadium. Pele scored the first goal of the match.

In London, a spokesman for Christie's said the auction house was aware of the contradictory claims but said they were satisfied with the authenticity of the shirt and would push ahead with the sale. The spokesman declined to provide details on how Christie's had determined the shirt's authenticity.

"We have specialists here who are experts in their field," he said. "Our expert has looked at the shirt and has come to this conclusion.

"Christie's are satisfied with the authenticity of the shirt which will be offered for sale with a signed declaration from the vendor Roberto Rosato."

Christie's plans to sell the jersey at an auction on March 27.

Slovakia, meanwhile, beat Iran 3-2 in a friendly match yesterday in Tehran, taking revenge for a 4-3 defeat by Iran in another friendly in Bratislava in August.

Slovakia took the lead in the fifth minute when Henrich Bencik found the net with a header.

Iran's team of mostly young and little-known players pushed forward looking for an equaliser and were rewarded when Ali Karimi, Iran's main striker in the absence of key players Ali Daei, Karim Bagheri and Mehdi Mahdavikia, scored in the 19th minute.

The more-experienced Slovakian side, however, redoubled their efforts and scored again in the 25th minute when Lubomir Reiter struck a long shot from outside the area.

In the second half, with the two sides playing a balanced game, Bencik stretched Slovakia's lead to 3-1 in the 67th minute.

Even then, Iran refused to give up and Karimi pulled a goal back from the penalty spot in the 79th minute after he was brought down in the area.

German authorities started an investigation yesterday into the actions of rowdy fans who nearly caused the Berlin-Cottbus match to be abandoned by tossing smoke bombs on to the pitch and igniting a fire in the stands.

The start of the game, which Cottbus subsequently won 1-0, was delayed for five minutes while police entered the stands to quieten the visiting Berlin spectators at the East German derby.

The German Football Federation said the management of both clubs could now be fined.